A new method for determination of a propagation rate coefficient in radical polymerization, pulsed electron polymerization−size exclusion chromatography (PEP−SEC), has been tested on N-vinylpyrrolidone in water and shown to yield results very similar to those obtained by the well-established pulsed laser polymerization−size exclusion chromatography (PLP−SEC). A potential advantage of PEP− SEC is its applicability to studying polymerizations in nontransparent systems and lack of any additives. Series of nanosecond pulses of high-energy electrons from an accelerator generate radicals which initiate polymerization. Further analysis of the samples and data processing are the same as in PLP−SEC. The described technique can be potentially developed into a method complementary and/or comparative to PLP−SEC.

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